1. You might not afford to invest too much money in SSL certificates. However, before going with the company that offers the cheapest services, keep in mind that the security of the digital certificates partially depends on how secure the certificate authority (CA) is.

If you want the installation process to go smoothly, make sure the CA offers a wide range of services.

2. Be prepared before applying for a certificate. You need to know the length of time for the certificates, the number of servers hosting a single domain, the server platform, and details about the organization. You also need a certificate signing request from the server that’s about to be secured.

3. Precisely determine what type of certificate you need. In addition to the certificates used for websites, there are also ones for email systems, for code signing and for other resources.

4. Another problem encountered by many organizations is regarding renewal. Make sure you request a new certificate 2-4 weeks before the old one expires, because it takes the CA some time to complete the process.

5. The way the certificate signing request (CSR) mentioned at step 2 is obtained depends on the software your organization is using. VeriSign has a detailed guide on how to generate it.